The Sacramento area has been experiencing a construction boom, resulting in a serious labor shortage.
Demand for new homes and retail spaces is skyrocketing as California faces a housing shortage. However, local builders are facing a shortage of a different kind, FOX40 TV has reported.
“We’re projecting a gap and a need for more than 7,000 workers a year in these various (construction) professions,” Trish Kelly, managing director of Valley Vision, said in an interview with the television station.
More than 7,000 additional construction workers are needed in the Sacramento area every year through 2021, according according to a new report by Valley Vision in partnership with the Los Rios Community College District. Many of the workers in demand earn $30 to $40 an hour, the report says.
Kelly said the gap in employees is a holdover from the economic downturn of the recession.
“We had a big build up. We did have a boom and a bust,” she said.
The report says the biggest needs are for carpenters and laborers. But Kelly said skilled workers across the entire industry are in short supply.
“There are construction managers, electrical engineers, pipe fitters, masonry,” Kelly said. “There’s a whole range of occupations in skill trades and professional trades.”
Jake Meehan, vice-president of trade school Northern California Construction Training, told the broadcaster: “There’s jobs everywhere. Unskilled, semi-skilled and super skilled.”
“You can’t go anywhere in this area without something being worked on,” Meehan said. “Schools, highways, new homes, lots of new homes. So, I think there’s a job here for everyone in this area if they want to work hard and do it.”
